Submission + - Swedish factory fined $3,000 for robot attack (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by

rodrigoandrade

on Thursday April 30, 2009 @01:38PM

rodrigoandrade writes: "Maintenance worker was attacked by a robot. The robo-assault reportedly took place in 2007, when a man attempted to repair a defective machine used to lift rocks without properly checking the power supply beforehand. And unfortunately, the human head isn't all that different than a big juicy rock to such a robot."

Submission + - The Sewing Machine War (volokh.com)

Submitted by lousyd on Thursday April 30, 2009 @01:17PM

lousyd writes: Volokh has hosted a paper by George Mason University law professor Adam Mossoff on the patent fracas a century and a half ago surrounding the sewing machine. A Stitch in Time: The Rise and Fall of the Sewing Machine Patent Thicket challenges assumptions by courts and scholars today about the alleged efficiency-choking complexities of the modern patent system. Mossoff says that complementary inventions, extensive patent litigation, so-called "patent trolls," patent thickets, and privately formed patent pools have long been features of the American patent system reaching back to the antebellum era.

Submission + - Apple Reportedly Considering Making Its Own Chips

Submitted by afabbro on Thursday April 30, 2009 @12:29PM

afabbro writes: There are scattered reports today that Apple is building a team to design its own chips, with an eye towards reducing power consumption on iPods and iPhones.

China Defines Internet Addiction 201

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Monday November 10, 2008 @05:45PM from the one-more-addiction-to-the-list dept.

narramissic writes "Three years after the first clinic dedicated to Internet addiction opened in Beijing, Chinese doctors have now officially defined it as an ailment. Those afflicted with this ailment spend six or more hours a day online and exhibit at least one of the following symptoms: difficulty sleeping or concentrating, yearning to be online, irritation, and mental or physical distress. Do you meet the criteria? You're in good company: About 10 percent of China's 253 million Internet users exhibit some form of addiction to the medium, and 70 percent of those people are young men, an official Xinhua News Agency report said."

Comment VMware (Score 1) 1

by azimman on Thursday July 31, 2008 @07:32PM (#24425669) Attached to: Creating a Security Test Evironment

Use VMware. Just test the apps in a known good VM with known variables; such as hardware, os version and patches, and other apps.

Screenshots For New Wii SimCity Released 68

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Thursday July 31, 2008 @06:02PM from the hand-that-rocks-the-tectonic-plates dept.

Kotaku has a host of screenshot images from the new upcoming Wii sim, SimCity Creator. Looks like the new SimCity allows you to not only build and manage a city, but utilize a whole new range of disaster tools as well. Can't wait to introduce my citizens to the new hand of God.

NASA Announces Water Found On Mars 281

Posted by timothy on Thursday July 31, 2008 @05:24PM from the so-val-kilmer-can-breathe-easy dept.

s.bots writes "Straight from the horse's mouth, NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander has identified water in a soil sample. Hopefully this exciting news will boost interest in the space program and further exploration of the Martian surface." Clearly, this has long been suspected, but now Martian water's been (in the words of William Boynton, lead scientist for the Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer) "touched and tasted."

GENI To Replace Internet, Gets $12M Funding 295

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday July 31, 2008 @10:43AM from the that-should-be-enough dept.

Postglobalism writes "A massive project to redesign and rebuild the Internet from scratch is inching along with $12 million in government funding and donations of network capacity by two major research organizations. Many researchers want to rethink the Internet's underlying architecture, saying a 'clean-slate' approach is the only way to truly address security and other challenges that have cropped up since the Internet's birth in 1969."

First North American OpenMoko/FreeRunners Arrive 180

Posted by timothy on Tuesday July 15, 2008 @01:44PM from the reminds-one-of-sony-mylo dept.

holdenkarau writes "The North American OpenMoko FreeRunners are starting to arrive. It would appear that the OpenMoko still has problems with some 3G networks, including AT&T. Although, in my own personal completely unscientific test, 2 out of 3 AT&T SIM cards worked. Check out the unboxing of a complete FreeRunner (along with debug board) and my experience getting the FreeRunner up and running. Or a direct link to the pictures for those of you bored with text. If you feel brave enough to take the plunge, you can buy your own FreeRunner from the OpenMoko store."

NASA Engineers Work On Alternative Moon Rocket 340

Posted by timothy on Tuesday July 15, 2008 @01:02PM from the doesn't-even-have-a-hybrid-engine dept.

Gibson writes "A team of 57 engineers at NASA's Marshall Spaceflight center feel that the Ares rocket is not the best solution for launching the new CEV. They are currently working on their own time developing an alternative launch system known as Jupiter. The 131 page proposal, along with other information, is available on the project website. Proponents of the project say that it is 'simpler, safer, and sooner' than the Ares project, predicting the ability for a return to the moon in 2017, two years before the current goal. Ares management has so far dismissed the proposal as a 'napkin drawing.'"